Safe to cook chicken from frozen?

im...LOST

Hey all, I was just wondering if you thought it is safe too cook chicken straight from frozen as opposed to letting it thaw out overnight. Maybe give it a zap in the microwave on the defrost option to defrost it and then cook it?

Any thoughts? Thanks

county

always thaw it out, put it under the cold tap for half an hour that should thaw it quickly but keep it away from the microwave

Dizzyblonde

Definitely don't cook it from frozen. I put it in a plastic bag in a large bowl of water to defrost but this takes a few hours. I wouldn't thaw it in the microwave - by the time the centre'd be defrosted it'd be warm on the outside.
I'm afraid if you were going to have it for dinner tonight you'll be eating late

im...LOST

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I'm afraid if you were going to have it for dinner tonight you'll be eating late

I'll have it tomorrow then Thanks for the help!

loyatemu

depends on whether you're talking about a whole chicken, or chicken breasts. The latter can be defrosted in the microwave provided you're going to cook them straight away. Anything with bones in you need to let thaw naturally though.

rubadub

Yeah, depends on the size and style of cooking. I have put ones in before frozen, and after 30mins, took it out and trimmed/carved off the outside, then put those bits on a separate tray and cook off. I then break the chick bones and lay it out flatter so it is more exposed to the heat.

I usually do this with any chicken so I do not dry it out too much. After a chicken is a little defrosted you can deeply score it all over, thighs, breast etc, this allows the heat to penetrate well.

Microwaves are not great for defrosting. Ice does not absorb microwaves well at all- water does. This means a little spot of ice will defrost- this turns to water and boils away while the surrounding ice is still frozen. You can see this effect on burgers. Microwave a burger and you usually get a "hot spot", one section will be brown and cooked while the rest is frozen. To defrost small things it is best to rinse them in water first to stop this effect.

im...LOST

Sorry, I really should have said more in my first post. It's just a chicken fillet that I plan to cut up into small(ish) pieces for a fajita.

It's defrosting here at the moment but I might need to give it a zapp in the microwave to finish it off and then cut it and then cook it straight away. I presume that that is ok..

Tree

my (possibly bad) habit with frozen fillets is to half defrost them in the microwave and slice them very fine while semi frozen. they melt w/i seconds when the hit the pan coz they're so thin.

The Sweeper

I think there's a lot of paranoia about frozen chicken.

Understand this: the process of cooking frozen chicken does not make it automatically poisonous. It's the serving of undercooked meat that causes a problem.

Semi-frozen chicken fillets can be easier to slice thinly than thawed fillets, and if you cook your food properly, ensuring it is fully cooked and piping hot right the way through before you serve it, you have nothing to worry about.

Alun

Tree wrote: »

my (possibly bad) habit with frozen fillets is to half defrost them in the microwave and slice them very fine while semi frozen. they melt w/i seconds when the hit the pan coz they're so thin.

I do something similar, in that I half defrost them like you do, cut them up into whatever chunks / strips I need and then just pop them back in for literally one or two minutes. Job done. Sometimes there's a piece or two that are still a little firm, but I've been doing this for absolutely ages and I'm still here to tell the tale.

The Sweeper

Well let's put it this way - if you can't cook chicken from frozen, someone would want to tell the makers of any crumbed and shaped frozen poultry product, like chicken nuggets or chicken burgers, and anyone who makes a pizza with chicken as part of the topping, and the manufacturers of those pre-made frozen meals for one with chicken in them...

Minder

MAJD - I take your point, but a whole chicken is a different matter. If it takes 90 minutes to roast a fresh chicken, how long will it take to roast a partly defrosted bird.

You don't want to discover that the thing is only partly cooked near the bone as you eat your way through it.

As for defrost in a wave? Food always comes out in a state of half-cooked confusion, with a iced centre. Sort of baked alaska style chicken. Yum!!

Supercell

I regularly cook frozen fillets in the George Foreman and have suffered no ill effects several thousand times later

I usually pop them in for a couple of mins by which time the centre has thawed a bit then butterfly em, then do for another couple of mins, lovely jubbly.

Tree

chicken on teh bone always gets left in the fridge overnight here. if you really want chicken on the bone in hte next couple of hours just go buy another one.